


Are You Secretly in Love With Me?

by Anonymous



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Ficlet, blatant self-indulgence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25548238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: My self-indulgent fantasy of a scene thatdidn'tcouldn't have happened on the way to Rosohna...
Relationships: Jester Lavorre/Caleb Widogast
Kudos: 19
Collections: Anonymous





	Are You Secretly in Love With Me?

“Cay-leb...” came Jester’s teasing voice from the darkness. It startled him out of his thoughts, drifting untethered as he enjoyed the familiar boredom of a night watch, with its freedom to just... think.

“Yes?’ Sharing the watch with Jester had been unexpected, but not unwelcome. Jester was the only person in the world that he had ever met who could always, even in the worst possible of circumstances, make him smile. 

“You’ve been awfully nice to me lately. It is really starting to scare me a little. You gave me that book, and you tried to get everybody to stay in Nicodranas longer, and you rescued the poor little... whatever that was that the kobolds were going to eat. And other things.”

Surprised, he looked over towards her. “I hope that I am always nice to you. To everyone in the group.”

There was a long pause. Finally she replied, “Yes, lately, that’s true. You’ve seemed... happier lately. Less scared. Is it just being out of the Empire?”

He considered. “Yes, a part. It’s good, not having to be looking over my shoulder all the time.”

“A part? What else is it?”

The fire was dying down to embers, still giving warmth from its white-orange heart, but only limited light, not enough to either dazzle his stunted night vision or see clearly any of his surroundings. Jester was a dark silhouette. The sense of anonymity it granted, even knowing that her vision wasn’t similarly limited, was comforting. So he decided to answer her.

“Back in Felderwin, you asked me a question. And I did not answer it.” he said, keeping his voice low enough that no one else could overhear. “At that time, honestly, I did not know the answer. But I think I do, now.”

He took a deep breath. There was no reason to share this– none at all. She needed security and safety. She needed someone strong and good. She deserved happiness. He could provide none of those things. But there was that nagging sense of something uncompleted, a sentence unfinished.

“The answer, then and now, was and is-- yes.”

There was silence. A crack from the fire as a branch burned through and broke. And Caleb was suddenly very, very sorry that he had given in to the momentary madness that had possessed him. Weak, stupid... With any luck she would have forgotten that flip question– they had all laughed, all but him, lost as he had been in fear and remembered pain. He struggled to think what he could say to erase the words that still seemed to hang between them, but her voice came before his mind could formulate anything coherent.

“I wondered,” she said softly. “Thank you, Caleb.” And she walked away.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this over a year ago, just for me and my fantasies. Hasn't happened, of course, but I still have hopes.


End file.
